Dance Theatre of Harlem

Thanks to the Dance Theatre of Harlem for sharing their photographys

Dance Theatre of Harlem

In 1969, at the height of the civil rights movement, Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook founded Dance Theatre of Harlem. Their vision remains one of the most democratic in dance. In moments of extreme injustice and frustration the most impactful art is born. This is true of the inception of one of the most influential American ballet companies of the last five decades, Dance Theatre of Harlem. Arthur Mitchell created the company in New York City, after making history in 1955 as the first black principal dancer at New York City Ballet. He was also the famed protégé of George Balanchine—the Russian-born dancer, choreographer and co-founder of the School of American Ballet. Mitchell’s impulse to start Dance Theatre of Harlem is said to have been spurred by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. Working in Brazil on a commission from the American government to assist in the founding of the National Ballet of Brazil, Mitchell decided to return to the US to try to make a difference in his community by teaching ballet classes in his native Harlem. At the height of the civil rights movement, in a graceful moment of artistic resistance, he created a haven for dancers of all colors who craved training, performance experience and an opportunity to excel in the classical ballet world.

Dance Theatre of Harlem

In 1969, at the height of the civil rights movement, Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook founded Dance Theatre of Harlem. Their vision remains one of the most democratic in dance. In moments of extreme injustice and frustration the most impactful art is born. This is true of the inception of one of the most influential American ballet companies of the last five decades, Dance Theatre of Harlem. Arthur Mitchell created the company in New York City, after making history in 1955 as the first black principal dancer at New York City Ballet. He was also the famed protégé of George Balanchine—the Russian-born dancer, choreographer and co-founder of the School of American Ballet. Mitchell’s impulse to start Dance Theatre of Harlem is said to have been spurred by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. Working in Brazil on a commission from the American government to assist in the founding of the National Ballet of Brazil, Mitchell decided to return to the US to try to make a difference in his community by teaching ballet classes in his native Harlem. At the height of the civil rights movement, in a graceful moment of artistic resistance, he created a haven for dancers of all colors who craved training, performance experience and an opportunity to excel in the classical ballet world.

Dance Theatre of Harlem

Dance Theatre of Harlem

Sheku Kanneh Mason and George Li play Beethoven, Debussy, Lutosławski, Fauré, and Mendelssohn

Doing Things with Calvin Royal III

Calvin Royal III, "Hallelujah " by Jeff Buckley, Directed by Andrii Didyk

Misty Copeland Defies Physics In A Stunning Dance Performance

Wikipedia:Biography
Misty Copeland (born September 10, 1982) is an author, entertainer, and American ballet dancer for American Ballet Theatre (ABT), one of the three leading classical ballet companies in the United States (along with New York City Ballet and San Francisco Ballet). She is the fourth African-American soloist, and the first in two decades with ABT, where she has endured the cultural pressure associated with this role.

Copeland is considered a prodigy who rose to stardom despite not starting ballet until the age of 13. By age 15, Copeland's mother and ballet teachers, who were serving as her custodial guardians, fought a custody battle over her. Meanwhile, Copeland, who was already an award-winning dancer, was fielding professional offers. The 1998 legal proceedings involved filings for emancipation by Copeland and restraining orders by her mother. Both sides dropped legal proceedings, and Copeland moved home to begin studying under a new teacher who was a former ABT member.

Misty Copeland

Misty Copeland, African American Ballerina
Wikipedia:Biography
Misty Copeland (born September 10, 1982) is an author, entertainer, and American ballet dancer for American Ballet Theatre (ABT), one of the three leading classical ballet companies in the United States (along with New York City Ballet and San Francisco Ballet). She is the fourth African-American soloist, and the first in two decades with ABT, where she has endured the cultural pressure associated with this role.

Copeland is considered a prodigy who rose to stardom despite not starting ballet until the age of 13. By age 15, Copeland's mother and ballet teachers, who were serving as her custodial guardians, fought a custody battle over her. Meanwhile, Copeland, who was already an award-winning dancer, was fielding professional offers. The 1998 legal proceedings involved filings for emancipation by Copeland and restraining orders by her mother. Both sides dropped legal proceedings, and Copeland moved home to begin studying under a new teacher who was a former ABT member.

Dance Theatre of Harlem

Photos provided by Dance Theatre of Harlem Misty Copeland, African American Ballerina
Wikipedia:Biography
Misty Copeland (born September 10, 1982) is an author, entertainer, and American ballet dancer for American Ballet Theatre (ABT), one of the three leading classical ballet companies in the United States (along with New York City Ballet and San Francisco Ballet). She is the fourth African-American soloist, and the first in two decades with ABT, where she has endured the cultural pressure associated with this role.

Copeland is considered a prodigy who rose to stardom despite not starting ballet until the age of 13. By age 15, Copeland's mother and ballet teachers, who were serving as her custodial guardians, fought a custody battle over her. Meanwhile, Copeland, who was already an award-winning dancer, was fielding professional offers. The 1998 legal proceedings involved filings for emancipation by Copeland and restraining orders by her mother. Both sides dropped legal proceedings, and Copeland moved home to begin studying under a new teacher who was a former ABT member.

Photos provided by Dance Theatre of Harlem

Misty Copeland, American Ballet Theatre

Anaheim Ballet Special Guest: Misty Copeland!

Misty Copeland, African American Ballerina
Wikipedia:Biography
Misty Copeland (born September 10, 1982) is an author, entertainer, and American ballet dancer for American Ballet Theatre (ABT), one of the three leading classical ballet companies in the United States (along with New York City Ballet and San Francisco Ballet). She is the fourth African-American soloist, and the first in two decades with ABT, where she has endured the cultural pressure associated with this role.

Copeland is considered a prodigy who rose to stardom despite not starting ballet until the age of 13. By age 15, Copeland's mother and ballet teachers, who were serving as her custodial guardians, fought a custody battle over her. Meanwhile, Copeland, who was already an award-winning dancer, was fielding professional offers. The 1998 legal proceedings involved filings for emancipation by Copeland and restraining orders by her mother. Both sides dropped legal proceedings, and Copeland moved home to begin studying under a new teacher who was a former ABT member.

Misty Copeland: The cover girl for a new kind of ballet


Misty Copeland rises to principal dancer at American Ballet Theater


'This Week' Sunday Spotlight: Misty Copeland



Misty Copeland’s Rise: The Banker and the Ballerina


Black ballerina Misty Copeland takes the lead in Swan Lake

Misty Copeland becomes the first African American Principle Dancer at Ameican Ballet Theater

Misty Copeland becomes the first African American Principle Dancer at Ameican Ballet Theater
Check out her Video and Bio under the Classical Dance Section.

Misty Copeland, African American Ballerina

Misty Copeland, African American Ballerina
Wikipedia:Biography
Misty Copeland (born September 10, 1982) is an author, entertainer, and American ballet dancer for American Ballet Theatre (ABT), one of the three leading classical ballet companies in the United States (along with New York City Ballet and San Francisco Ballet). She is the fourth African-American soloist, and the first in two decades with ABT, where she has endured the cultural pressure associated with this role.

Copeland is considered a prodigy who rose to stardom despite not starting ballet until the age of 13. By age 15, Copeland's mother and ballet teachers, who were serving as her custodial guardians, fought a custody battle over her. Meanwhile, Copeland, who was already an award-winning dancer, was fielding professional offers. The 1998 legal proceedings involved filings for emancipation by Copeland and restraining orders by her mother. Both sides dropped legal proceedings, and Copeland moved home to begin studying under a new teacher who was a former ABT member.

In 1997, Copeland won the Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Award as the best dancer in Southern California. After two summer workshops with the ABT, she became a member of the Studio Company in 2000, a member of the corps de ballet in 2001, and a soloist in 2007. Stylistically, she is considered a classical ballet dancer. As a soloist since the autumn of 2007, she has been described as having matured into a more contemporary and sophisticated dancer.

Copeland was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and raised in the San Pedro community of Los Angeles, California. She is of African American, German American and Italian American descent. Copeland is the youngest of Sylvia DelaCerna's four children from her second marriage. Copeland's siblings from that marriage are Erica Stephanie Copeland, Douglas Copeland Jr., and Christopher Ryan Copeland. She also has two younger half-siblings, Lindsey Monique Brown (a former track star at Chico State University) and Cameron Koa DelaCerna, one each from her mother's third and fourth marriage. Copeland did not see her father, Doug Copeland, between the ages of two and twenty-two. DelaCerna, a former Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader, had studied dance. She is a trained Medical Assistant, but worked mostly in sales. DelaCerna is biracial (Italian and African-American) and adopted by African-American parents.

Between the ages of three and seven Copeland lived in Bellflower, California, with her mother and her mother's third husband Harold Brown, a Santa Fe Railroad sales executive. The family moved to San Pedro where Sylvia eventually married her fourth husband, radiologist Robert DelaCerna, and where Misty attended Point Fermin Elementary School. When she was seven, Copeland saw Nadia on Lifetime and suddenly Nadia Comăneci was her new role model.] At age eleven, she found her first creative outlet at a Boys & Girls Club wood shop class. Copeland never studied ballet or gymnastics formally until her teenage years. However, she did enjoy choreographing flips and dance moves to Mariah Carey songs in her youth.[16] Following in the footsteps of her older sister Erica who had starred on the Dana Middle School drill team that won statewide competitions, Copeland became captain of the Dana drill team. Copeland's natural presence and skill came to the attention of her classically trained Dana drill team coach, Elizabeth Cantine, in San Pedro. She was first introduced to ballet in classes at her local Boys & Girls Club by Cynthia Bradley, who was a friend of Cantine's. DelaCerna allowed Copeland to go to the club after school until the workday ended and Bradley, a former working dancer with companies in San Diego, Virginia and Kentucky, taught a free ballet class there once a week. Bradley invited Copeland to attend class at the small local ballet school, San Pedro Dance Center. However, Copeland initially declined the offer because her mother did not have a car, was working 12–14 hours a day, and her oldest sister Erica was working two jobs. Copeland began her ballet studies at the age of 13 at the San Pedro Dance Center when Cynthia Bradley began picking her up from school. During her first year of middle school the family left Robert. After living with various boyfriends of her mother, the family, moved to the Sunset Inn in Gardena, California. Soon, DelaCerna told Copeland that she would have to give up ballet. However, Bradley wanted Copeland to continue and offered to host her, to which DelaCerna agreed so Misty could pursue her dream. Eventually, they signed a management contract as well as a life-story contract. She spent the weekdays with the Bradleys near the coast and the weekends at home with her mother, a two-hour bus ride away. By the age of fourteen, Copeland was the winner of a national ballet contest and won her first solo role.

The Bradleys introduced Copeland to books and videos about ballet. When she got to see Paloma Herrera perform at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Copeland began to idolize her as much as she did Mariah Carey. After three months of study Copeland was en pointe. The media first noticed Copeland when she drew 2,000 patrons per show as she performed as Clara in the The Nutcracker after only eight months of study. A larger role in Don Quixote and a featured role in The Chocolate Nutcracker, an African American version of the tale that was narrated by Debbie Allen, soon followed.[8]

The summer before her fifteenth birthday, Copeland and Bradley decided to pursue homeschooling to free up time for dance.[25] At fifteen years old, Copeland won first place in the Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Awards. The competition was held at the Chandler Pavilion on March 24, 1998, and Copeland said it was the first time she ever battled nervousness. The winners received scholarships between $500 and $2500. Copeland's victory in the 10th annual contest among gifted high school students in Southern California secured her recognition by the Los Angeles Times as the best young dancer in the Greater Los Angeles Area.

Copeland studied at the San Francisco Ballet School after winning the Spotlight award. While training with Bradley, she selected the workshop with the San Francisco Ballet over offers from the Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Dance Theater of Harlem and Pacific Northwest Ballet. Of the programs she auditioned for, only the New York City Ballet declined to make her an offer. During the six week workshop, Copeland was placed in the most advanced classes. She was under full tuition plus expenses scholarship at the San Francisco Ballet summer workshop. At the end of the workshop, she received one of the few offers to continue as a full-time student at the school, but with encouragement from her mother to return home and from Bradley to return to the personal attention the Bradley family offered, she declined with visions of a subsequent summer with ABT. She returned home to controversy as her family resented the Bradley's influence.

They asked Copeland to resume her residence with them, resume study at San Pedro High School and sought Cantine's advice on finding a new ballet school. Soon she began her junior year at San Pedro and her ballet studies with former ABT dancer Diane Lauridsen of Torrance's South Bay Ballet at the Lauridsen Ballet Center. As a student, Copeland had a 3.8/4.0 GPA through her junior year of high school.

Misty Copeland



Misty Copeland On Changing the Face of Ballet | TIME 100


MISTY COPELAND SOLO


The Nutcracker- featuring Misty Copeland


Misty Copeland Defies Physics In A Stunning Dance Performance


Falling

NYC Ballet's Lauren Lovette on George Balanchine's RAYMONDA VARIATIONS

NYC Ballet's Lauren Lovette on George Balanchine's RAYMONDA VARIATIONS

Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, acts:1-4

The Nutcracker Act1. - 1. (Royal Ballet -2008)




The Nutcracker Act1. - 2. (Royal Ballet -2008)





The Nutcracker Act1. - 3. (Royal Ballet -2008)




The Nutcracker Act1. - 4. (Royal Ballet -2008)





Scenes From Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker
The Arabian Variation in Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker is a stunning display of virtuosic ballet by Sergey Chumakov and Elena Petrechenko. Moscow Ballet's 20th Anniversary production of the Great Russian Nutcracker overflows with a spectacular new "Dove of Peace" where 2 dancers become one stunning bird, a Christmas Tree that grows to 7 stories tall, a corps of 40 men and women, falling snow and Russian sleigh escorted by Father Christmas (Ded Moroz) and Snow Maiden (Snegurochka), towering silk puppets, 200 lavish costumes, and 9 hand-painted backdrops all set to Tchaikovsky's complete score.




20 Years and 20 clips of Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker -- N

Classical Ballet/Joffrey Ballet 's Rite of Spring (1-3)

My notes:
Jeffrey's Ballet Company has been performing since 1956. In 1962 Alvin Ailey was asked to chorography a dance for the company. I have downloaded Rites of Spring parts (1-3). enjoy


In 1956, a time during which most touring companies performed only reduced versions of ballet classics, Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino formed a unique six-dancer ensemble that toured the country in a station wagon pulling a U-Haul trailer, performing original ballets that were created by Robert Joffrey. While Joffrey stayed in New York City to teach ballet classes and earn money to pay the dancers' salaries, Gerald Arpino led the troupe across America's heartland. The ensemble's first performance in a major city occurred in Chicago in 1957. The Joffrey Ballet originally settled down in New York City, originally named the Robert Joffrey Theatre Ballet. In 1962, modern choreographer Alvin Ailey was invited to make a work for the company. Rebekah Harkness was an important early benefactor and she made international touring possible (Soviet Union, 1963). But in 1964 she and Joffrey parted ways.Joffrey Ballet 1989 Rite of Spring (1 of 3)


Joffrey Ballet Rite of Spring 1989 (2 of 3)


Joffrey Ballet 1989 Rite of Spring (3 of 3)

African Americans in Classical & Modern Dance/Janet Bergman Collins.

My Notes: Janet Bergman Collins was the cousin of Carmen De Lavallade. She was also the first classical dancer who was hired full time at the Met. I have downloaded several videos for you to review, enjoy.

Bio was taken from Wikipedia:
Janet Collins (1951)
Janet Collins (March 7, 1917 in New Orleans, Louisiana – May 28, 2003 in Fort Worth, Texas) was a ballet dancer, choreographer, and teacher. She performed on Broadway, in films, and appeared frequently on television.
After moving to Los Angeles at the age of 4, Collins, received her first dance training at a Catholic community center. Collins studied primarily with Carmelita Maracci, Lester Horton, and Adolph Bolm, who were a few ballet teachers who accepted black students.
Janet Collins was one of the few classically trained Black dancers of her generation. In 1951 she won the Donaldson Award for best dancer on Broadway for her work in Cole Porter's Out of This World. She also performed in Aida, Carmen, and was the first Black ballerina at the Metropolitan Opera. She could not tour in parts of the Deep South due to her race. In later life she taught dance.
Janet Collins was among the pioneers of black ballet dancing and paved the way for others to follow. (Arthur Mitchell, for example, joined the New York City Ballet in the year Collins retired.) In 1932, aged 15, she auditioned with success, for the prestigious Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, but as she was required to paint her face and skin white in order to be able to perform. She did not join the company. In 1948, she moved to New York and got the chance to dance her own choreography on a shared program at the 92nd Street YMHA.




Janet Collins struggled time and again against racism, which did not spare the world of professional ballet dancing. Not many African-American dancers and performers achieved the successful career she was able to attain. In 1951, Janet Collins became the first African American to be hired full-time by the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Marian




Anderson, the first to sing there, did not perform until 1955.
Janet Collins' dance reputation today resides primarily in her role in breaking the colour barrier; the constraints on Black classical dancers were too strong for her to have a vibrant performing career. However, her original choreography, which she performed in solo tours, was clearly of note, although few records survive. In her late forties she retired, turning to religion and finding comfort as an oblate in the Benedictine order. She was also an accomplished painter. Janet Collins died in 2003 at the age of 86, in Fort Worth, Texas. In recognition of her great work and dedication, her renowned cousin Carmen De Lavallade established the Janet Collins Fellowship which would honor aspiring talented ballet dancers.




Janet Collins documentary trailer


Janet Collins.mov